ARTICLES

Grass Roots Gatherers

Individuals Fuel Parental Notification Petition Drive

BY ROBERT KUMPEL

The Parents' Right to Know initiative appears headed for success, a remarkable achievement for a campaign with no major corporate sponsorship, but only a simple grass-roots effort to gather signatures.

As of January 24, more than 415,000 signatures had been collected. The target is 598,105 valid signatures by the April 14 deadline, but about 800,000 total signatures will be needed to guarantee the proper margin of valid signatures. The largest gatherers have been individuals rather than organizations, many of them relying on a network of pro-life friends and church connections to get signatures.

The top individual signature-collector through December was Aurea Damm of Gardena, who had 161. Damm, 50, is a veteran of pro-life activism, working as a regular volunteer with a pregnancy crisis center. "When they had an initiative to ban late-term abortions, I collected almost 400 signatures at my church. I feel like I should have collected a lot more, but it's pretty hard for other people. They just don't understand, it's like, 'Oh, don't get me involved.'" Damm, however, has no hesitation about getting involved and hopes that she is just getting started with the Parents' Right to Know Initiative. "I've given them to people and groups, this church and that church. I attend St. Anthony of Padua, and we have an awesome pro-life priest. He has let us gather signatures before and he is a great help."

The second-place signature hunter was Rita Williams of Galt (near Stockton), who got 143 people to sign the petition before the end of the 2004. Williams, 45, works for the Pregnancy Resource Center of Lodi. She sounded disappointed when told she was in second place. "I thought we would have tons more than that! I've just had a lot of volunteers take the sheets to their churches. And I belong to a very large church, Century Assembly of God, so I just made an organized thing of it. We also asked anyone coming into the center here if they would like to sign. We have had a lot of very positive responses. Then, of course, there are the 'Christians' who ask, 'What business is that of yours?' My target figure is 1000 signatures. I've been asked to speak at several engagements on the sanctity of human life and I'm going to try to get more signatures there. The Catholic diocese has invited me to set up a table and speak. First Baptist Church, Lodi Avenue Baptist Church and Youth For Christ have all asked me to speak, so I'm going to try to put them to work!"

Gerald Adler of Visalia was the number three signature-gatherer, with 138 signatures. Adler, 76, commented, "I would like to have gotten more. I did it at church during two services. I had three more people at two more tables, because we have a really large church, Visalia First Baptist, plus I had a lot of help from the local Right To Life people. They gave me those 'VOTE LIFE' election-time placards for the tables. I have good motivation, because both of my children were adopted, so I'm a right-to-life advocate. I also have two grandchildren. I guess seniors can work more at this. For one thing, we have the time and, well, I probably shouldn't say this, but I think our generation has stronger morals. But seriously, I'm honored that I can help."

Sara Castle of Coulterville took fourth place with 100 signatures by the end of December. Fifth place went to Cheryl Anaya of Fontana with 67 signatures. Kim Long of Bakersfield and Maria Cynthia De La Rosa of San Bruno tied for sixth, each producing 63 signatures each.

Seventh place was also a draw. Mary Lou Thomey of Lake Isabella and 93 year-old Nancy Graham each gathered 60 signatures. Graham humbly insisted that she hasn't done any great task. "You're not kidding me are you? I'm the seventh top person? It's really all these beautiful people helping me. I'm not feeling too well and I'm not moving too fast right now. I haven't been working on this for two weeks and I'm trying to get other people to step in and take over. All I really did was send out some letters to friends and ask them to fill them out and I also have a great church, even though they're not too publicly active. When you're 93, you get to know a lot of people."

Eighth place honors went to Paul Schmidt of Weaverville who amassed 56 signatures. Mary Kwoka from Fiddletown got 55 signatures for ninth place. Maria Guildrey of Simi Valley managed to collect 53 signatures, putting her in tenth place.

Saint Mel's Catholic Church in Fair Oaks, with Diane Nye, and Bruce and Leslie Fairchild spearheading the effort, gathered 500 signatures, making it first among California churches. Saint Clare Catholic Church in Santa Clarita Valley collected 408. Calvary Chapel in Upland had 67 signatures, and New Creation Christian Faith Center of Los Angeles had 63. Saint Reed Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles had 42 signatures.

Other motivated people, who care about families enough to invest their time in gathering signatures, include:

Barbara Craddock, San Andreas, 49 signatures; Carolyn Skeie, Covina, 48 signatures; Priscilla Dack, Fresno, 42 signatures; Rachel Lippincott/Mid-Valley Church of Christ, Tulare, 34 signatures; James Page/El Camino Baptist Church, Fresno, 33 signatures; Elsie Bishop, Ripon, 28 signatures; Jennifer Hales, Tulare, 28 signatures; Donald Combar, Torrance, 28 signatures; William Hobbs, Visalia, 26 signatures; Jessica Hume, Clovis, 25 signatures.

The following pro-life heroes and congregations also gathered 25 or more signatures before the end of last year: Valley Church of Christ, Sun City; Linda Parker, El Cajon; Elsa Van Leuven, Downey; Eduarda Sese/Good Shepherd Parish, San Diego; Ruth Yancey/East Clairemont Southern Baptist Church, San Diego; John Cully, San Diego; Donal Combar, Torrance; Morris Cerullo World Evangelism, San Diego; Dorothy Sharp, Lomita; Isadore Colletti, Mission Viejo; Jadele Taylor, Vista; Michelle Garrett, Fresno; Cornerstone Christian Fellowship, San Bernardino.

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